The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Volunteer Readers Edition

I just wanted to give a big thank you to all of the readers who wrote to me over the last week offering to contribute articles to any potential tabletop gaming site that I might launch in the future. I really appreciate all of your offers and I have filed them away in case that I decide to go ahead and launch the site with a multi-author model, which is one of several things I’m contemplating at this point.

The trick with that is making sure that I’m maintaining a distinct voice that people will want to read, which is very hard to do in a multi-author blog. For the most part, I generally don’t enjoy multi-author blogs because I deeply enjoy the connection with a single writer, and it’s also a reason why I’ve resisted having other writers on The Simple Dollar. I read blogs because of the personal connection to that writer – I know their foibles and I also know their sincerity. That makes me deeply value what that person writes, and when you introduce lots of other writers, I feel like that connection is damaged.

That doesn’t mean I won’t use the multi-writer model, it just means that that model has some negatives to go along with the positives for me. I care about the content, first and foremost.

Why I No Longer Worry About Having a “Personal Style” I abandoned such an idea in about 2005 or 2006. It just seemed expensive without bringing any real benefit into my life. I am who I am. I don’t need to create a “personal style” so that I stand out. If who I am isn’t good enough, some carefully-considered “personal style” won’t be good enough, either. (@ happiness project)

The Wisdom of a Crowded Rink It always looks like the wrong time to change your life or to do something outside the norm. If you spend all of your time waiting for the “perfect moment” to exercise or to change your personal finance habits, it’ll never happen. (@ jonathan fields)

I actually did the same thing not too long ago. After having a third child, I couldn’t justify having as little life insurance as I had. Now, if anything, the argument is that I have too much life insurance (it’d be about ten years of my annual income). (@ five cent nickel)

I think it’s very appropriate you talk about how it’s easy to come to know the foibles and consistent traits of certain authors and in the same post leave out the title and link for your last paragraph.

Re insurance – the idea is that your beneficiaries/dependents can support their same standard of living by using income from the principal of the insurance (i.e., the amount of insurance you’re carrying). With 2 very young children, you’ll want your family to be able to do that for at least 10 years, if not 15-20. And the principal would be available to the kids for college or other post-high school studies as they go out on their own, if your wife doesn’t need it.

The thing I don’t like about multi-author blogs is the quality of the posts tends to go down, at least on the blogs I read. I find I skip a LOT of new GRS articles because I can’t stand a couple of the new writers, and the others are merely mediocre.

I think the idea of not needing a personal style to be noticed is very similar to the idea of not needing a college degree to be noticed. People make assessments and assumptions quickly – in this world, we have to. Having a college degree sends a message about you. Having a personal style sends a message about you. It’s one way of branding yourself. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, but I believe there is indeed value to thinking about what message your appearance sends to the world and making sure that aligns with what conclusions you hope they draw.

I think people misunderstand what a “personal style” is. If your personal style is lazyboy loungers, baseball caps and tshirts with sayings on them, then that is your personal style. I guess the point is, is not that some people don’t have a personal style, but to not feel bad if you are one of those people who are not particularly interested in expressing yourself via clothes and furnishings. I am by no means a fashion-oriented person but I think people should have some self-respect. I choose not to wear grossly nonfitting clothing (in either direction), sweatpants/athletic wear (when not doing athletics) or plastic shoes in public. If that makes me a snob so be it.

I can understand why you’d want to keep TSD a single-author blog, but I think for the gaming page it’d be wise to take contributions from others, if only because the gaming experience is so much more interactive. It’d be smarter to take contributions from elsewhere.

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